Okay, this week we’re diving into French history, which might not be your cup of tea. But I’ll try to make you feel it was worth your while. If we back up a bit to the 16th century, we find France undergoing seismic shifts in economy, religion, and culture—all of these, of course, playing on [Read More...]

As we pointed out last week, Pascal’s actual scientific and mathematical work has been far surpassed. We may like stories about Euclid and Galileo, Newton and Leibniz but we don’t usually come across them in the Google rankings of “most quotable.” In fact, for a scientist/logician/mathematician, Pascal has a remarkably unscientific reputation among many contemporary [Read More...]